Daily Devotionals: Wil Pounds, Section H - In Search Of A Better Tomorrow

Daily Devotional: Do you have a Sense of God’s Presence?

Message by Wil Pounds

Do you have a Sense of God’s Presence?

“That Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith . . .” (Ephesians 3:17).

A good friend asked me, “Do you fell you are adequately experiencing the presence and power of the Holy Spirit?” That is a probing question every Christian should pause and consider.

I firmly believe that every born again believer is indwelt by the Holy Spirit, but not every believer is yielded to His control. Our experience of His divine presence depends upon our yielding to Him moment by moment. If the Holy Spirit is to have a larger part of our lives we must make a deliberate choice and allow Him to take control.

The Spirit wants to fill our lives so that Christ may settle down and make Himself feel completely at home as a permanent resident in our hearts (Eph. 3:17). Our prayer should be that Christ would settle down, even now, in our hearts and take control as the rightful owner.

Imagine what it would be like to experience the “fullness of God” (v. 19). Paul was praying that we may be filled up to or unto all the fullness that is in God Himself. That will not take place until we stand complete and perfect in the likeness of Christ at His coming, but it can be our prayer and vision now. Paul was praying that we would be filled and filled and filled and filled forever, as God out of His infinite resources increasingly pours Himself into His redeemed people.

David Brainerd wrote in his diary April 21, 1742, “O My sweet Savior! Who have I but Thee? And there is none upon earth that I desire beside Thee.” Then he added, “If I had a thousand lives, my soul would gladly have laid them all down at once, to have been with Christ. My soul never enjoyed so much of heaven before; it was the most refined and most spiritual season of communion with God I ever yet felt.”

Oh, for a mature, intimate love relationship with Christ. The Holy Spirit always points us to Him and in that a felt presence and power that is wholly beyond man.

It is from that inner resource of “the riches of His glory” that we are “strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inner man so that Christ may dwell in your hearts and through faith. . .” (3:16-17).

The filling and control of our lives by the Holy Spirit is not automatic. We are baptized once when we believed on Christ as our savior, but filled many times. It is a deliberate choice we make each day. This empowering presence of the Holy Spirit within us enables us to live an abundant spiritual life.

“Do you feel you are adequately experiencing the presence and power of the Holy Spirit?” Why did you respond that way?

When He is in control, our minds are set on the things above (Rom. 8:5).

Do you have a richer, fuller desire to know the Lord Jesus Christ and fellowship with Him? That is the work of the Holy Spirit in your heart.

Who is in control of your life? Have you made a conscious deliberate choice to let the Holy Spirit be in charge of your life? Is He a dynamic, shaping, controlling presence in your life today? How can He become an ever-present reality in your daily life?

Will you make a conscious decision to let Jesus Christ rule your life from this day onward? From that moment on begin each day with a solemn commitment to let Him take control of your life through out the day.

“Lord Jesus I give this day to you. I make myself available to you to live Your life in and through me. Take these hands and feet, this tongue and these eyes, and let them express a heart full of Thee. Here, come live in and through me this day. I yield myself to You.”

Selah!

Daily Devotional: Parable of the Sower

Message by Wil Pounds

Parable of the Sower

The parable of the sower sheds great light on what happens in churches when individuals make public decisions to follow Jesus Christ and then drop out of sight. Our situation is not much different than in Jesus’ day when the masses of people had rejected Him (Matthew 11:16-24). They could not understand the deeper things about the kingdom of God. However, the disciples responded to His teaching and believed on Him.

It is at that point in His ministry that Jesus began to teach using parables, which are earthy stories with heavenly meanings. Jesus deliberately chose to withhold further truth about Himself and the kingdom from the masses. When the crowds heard the parables, it seemed to them little more than an interesting but pointless story that taught no profound spiritual truth.

On the other hand, the disciples heard Jesus teaching the parables and their powers of spiritual perception developed and Jesus’ teachings on the kingdom became clearer to them.

In the parable of the sower, Jesus explained that the seed is the gospel of the kingdom, and the soil is the human heart (Matthew 13:3-23). “The kingdom of heaven” comes with the preaching of the gospel of Jesus Christ and the planting of His Word in the heart of the listeners. The “seed” is God’s Word, and the “soil” represents different kinds of hearers and the response of their hearts to the Word (Romans 10:17; Matt. 13:9; Mark 4:24; Luke 8:18).

The parable tells us that there are some listeners whose hearts are hard as a stone. They will not hear. Their hearts are like a packed down road. “When anyone hears the word of the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what has been sown in his heart. This is the one on whom seed was sown beside the road” (Matthew 13:19). Sin hardens the heart until it is like concrete.

Jesus came preaching God’s sovereign rule in the minds and hearts of men, and they refused to listen to His message and surrender their wills to Him. They do not want God being the boss of their lives.

God says that if we are willing, He will remove from our heart of stone and give us a heart of flesh. “I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will be careful to observe My ordinances” (Ezekiel 36:27).

What is the condition of my heart? Is it as hard as a rock, or is it soft and pliable as tissue? How tragic when we persist in our stubborn rejection of God’s offerings of grace.

Jesus also said that some hearts are shallow like soil where, “The seed was sown on the rocky places, this is the man who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy; yet he has no firm root in himself, but is only temporary, and when affliction or persecution arises because of the word, immediately he falls away” (Matthew 13:20-21).

These shallow hearts are attracted by the excitement and emotions. They make a profession of faith publicly, but almost as suddenly as they professed they quickly become apostate. They were never born spiritually. No spiritual regeneration has taken place in their hearts. Just joining the church or being baptized does not make you born again.

There are other listeners who are choked to death by worries of the world (vv. 7, 22). “Others fell among the thorns, and the thorns came up and choked them out” (Matthew 13:7).

“And the one on whom seed was sown among the thorns, this is the man who hears the word, and the worry of the world and the deceitfulness of wealth choke the word, and it becomes unfruitful” (Matthew 13:22).

Materialism and humanism is our secular lifestyle, and it chokes us to spiritual death. This kind of spiritual death does not rush upon a person suddenly but gradually. Spiritual weeds grow slowly, but they in time strangle the budding spiritual life that is there. When the Holy Spirit speaks, there is always the reply, “Some other day, some other time; don’t bother me now.” The life of spiritual ease takes over and “the worry of the world and the deceitfulness of riches choke the Word, and it becomes unfruitful. And according to the world philosophy, “The person with the most toys wins,” but he dies spiritually. So “What shall it profit a man if he gains the world but looses His soul?”

Stony, shallow, strangled, or spiritual—which describes the soil of your heart?

“And others fell on the good soil and yielded a crop, some a hundredfold, some sixty, and some thirty” (Matthew 13:8). What made the difference? Jesus said, “good ground” (v.23). It is the “good ground” that “hears the Word and understands it” and “bears fruit” (v.23). These are the ones who are born again.

Just as important as the soil is the fruit. Am I bearing kingdom fruit? (Cf. Matt. 7:16; Rom. 6:22; Gal. 5:22-23; Col. 1:10; Rom. 1:13). When there is saving faith in the heart there will always be fruit in the life.

Selah!

Message by Wil Pounds

Daily Devotional: From Doubt to Faith

Would you consider it a compliment if someone called you a “doubting Thomas”?

Doubting is a vital ingredient in all mature critical thinking. No one really respects a gullible person. The mature person weighs the facts and draws his conclusions based upon solid information.

Christ drew even closer to His disciples when they found it hard to believe. He did not push them away, or give up on them; He gave them space to think, ponder and meditate on the reality of spiritual truths.

His disciple Thomas doubted the witness of his fellow disciples when they sought him out and told him that Jesus was risen from the dead. Jesus did not jump in with a quick revelation. He let Thomas sweat it out for eight days (John 20:24-29).

“And after eight days. . . Jesus came, the doors being shut, and stood in their midst, and said, ‘Peace be with you.’” (v. 26).

God deals with us in our doubts the same way He did with Thomas. When we acknowledge our doubts, Christ reaches out to us, and as we yield to His presence He reveals more and more of Himself to us.

Don’t run from your doubts or deny them. Acknowledge them to God and ask Him for wisdom to understand things that are beyond our reason.

Our doubts become the means of experiencing the reality of Christ more profoundly. He reaches out to us in our unique needs. To Thomas He says, “Reach here your finger, and see My hands; reach here your hand, and put it into My side; and be not unbelieving, but believing” (v. 27).

It is not a matter of psyching ourselves up. It is our response to His wisdom, insight and intimate presence with us.

There is a lot of psychological babble and nonsense in religious circles. You need to doubt a lot of things you read and hear. Get into God’s Word and listen to His voice and see the truth through His eyes, and think His thoughts.

The response of Thomas was, “My Lord, and my God!” (v. 28). That is the only legitimate response when we submit to His truth. Thomas declared Jesus to be Jehovah, LORD, Master, Sovereign! Jesus Christ is my personal God. He is my Lord and my God! Thomas in that moment of truth came to a personal, intimate relationship with God in Christ.

What question of doubt would you ask Christ today? What is the one thing you stumble over? Go ahead and ask Him right now. Be patient and listen to His response with divine wisdom.

Perhaps there have been some changes in circumstances in your life that have caused you to doubt God’s faithfulness. Can you trust Him with these? Are you humble enough to allow Him to answer them in His own time and accept His answer when He gives it? Are you humble enough to respond, “My Lord and my God”?

Your situation is not hopeless. He gave you a mind as well as a heart. He will provide what you need if you will allow Him.

The Lord Jesus revealed Himself to Thomas. What finally got through to Thomas was the presence of Jesus Christ, identified by His wounds in His hands, feet and side.

It is this same love of Jesus that changes our hearts. The truth of God’s love in Christ changes our lives. The death of Christ continually proves the truth of the gospel. C. H. Spurgeon said, “Incarnate Deity, the notion of God that lived, and bled, and died in human form, instead of guilty man is itself its own best witness.”

Ask God for the evidence. God is more interested in revealing Himself to you than you are in seeking Him. Jesus always comes down to our level and reveals Himself to us. He moves us from doubt to trust. The simple truth is if we do believe in Christ, it is because He has always been there before hand leading us to Himself.

Selah!

Message by Wil Pounds

Daily Devotional: Who Will Bring Charge Against God’s Chosen?

“Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen?” (Romans 8:33)

This is one of the most important questions a person can ask. It is important that we get God’s answer to this “unanswerable question.”

Since God has justified us, no charge can be brought against those whom God has chosen. The reason is because the Supreme Judge of the universe has acquitted the believing sinner, and He has also clothed him with the very righteousness of Jesus Christ (2 Cor. 5:21).

“Who will bring a charge against God’s elect? God is the one who justifies; who is the one who condemns? Christ Jesus is He who died, yes, rather who was raised, and who is at the right hand of God, who also intercedes for us” (Romans 8:33-34).

Our sin was placed on Jesus Christ, and punished in His death on the cross. But God not only imputes our sin to His Son, but He takes the perfect righteousness of Jesus Christ and imputes it to the believer.

When God justifies the believing sinner He makes a judicial declaration to effect that He does more than pardon or forgive or sins; He now regards us as just and righteous and holy in His sight.

God not only imputes my sin to His Son, He also takes His righteousness and imputes it to me (2 Cor. 5:21).

Therefore, God’s answer to the unanswerable question is, “No one can lay any charge against me because I am clothed in this righteousness.” “It is God who justifies.”

The wonderful thing is that God is the Supreme Judge and the Supreme Court of the universe. He is the highest authority. No one can override Him. No one can appeal to a higher judge. His word is final.

Therefore, “Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen?” God is the one who justifies, and the person who is in Christ need never fear condemnation now or forever. No slick attorney, including Satan, can overthrow His decision to acquit and justify the believing sinner.

The basis by which the Supreme Judge makes that decision is the finished atoning work of Jesus Christ on the cross. Jesus died for our sins. The payment was paid in full. The wages of sin is death.” Jesus died our death, and the righteousness in which the believing sinner stands on the Day of Judgment is the righteousness of Jesus Christ that is imputed to him.

Our salvation depends upon the work of Jesus Christ alone. We can bring no works of righteousness to God because we are depraved sinners.

If the blood of Jesus Christ does not cover your sins, you are already condemned. But if you are under the blood of Jesus, you are clothed in His righteousness, and “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus” (Rom. 8:1).

We are pardoned because of the atoning death of Jesus Christ. Have you put your trust in His death alone to save you and cloth you in His perfect righteousness?

“For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them” (Ephesians 2:8-10).

Selah!

Daily Devotional: How Do You Know When You Are Spirit-filled?

Message By Wil Pounds

How do You know when You are Spirit-filled?

The supreme mission of the Holy Spirit is to glorify Jesus Christ. He glorifies the Son by unfolding clearly the meaning of His person and atoning work.

The work of the Spirit is Christocentric. He will glorify Christ and will never draw attention to Himself. He always declares the work of Christ.

The work of the Holy Spirit is always to glorify Christ. Jesus said that when the Holy Spirit comes, “He shall glorify Me” (John 16:14). When the Spirit came upon the 120 in the upper room at Pentecost they immediately began to proclaim, not the Holy Spirit, but Jesus Christ is Lord. And they never ceased doing that.

How do you know when you are filled with the Spirit? You will be glorifying Jesus Christ in your everyday life and work. You are filled and under the control of the Spirit when Christ is Lord of your life. There is no greater joy than honoring Him every moment, every hour of the day.

It is the work of the Holy Spirit to exalt Jesus Christ in the life of every born again believer. If your life is not bringing glory to Christ then you need to ask the hard questions: Am I a true Christian? Have I been converted? Is He Lord of my life? When you become a new creation in Christ Jesus the Holy Spirit immediately begins to recreate in your life the image of the glorified Savior. It is impossible to know Christ as your Savior and not to some extent reflect His character in your life.

The Holy Spirit communicates and shares with us the presence and power of the exalted Christ so that He is demonstrated in us as the Lord of glory. Jesus said, “He shall glorify Me; for He shall take of Mine, and shall disclose it to you” (v. 14). The Holy Spirit is the person who takes the things of Christ and manifests them to us and through us to the Father’s glory.

This is evident in the life of every Christian, not just an elite few special people. In every true believer the glory of Christ should be seen because the Holy Spirit glorifies the Son of God in the weakness of the human flesh. The Spirit will make Christ apparent and glorious in us. We are a new creation in Christ Jesus.

The one sole objective in the work of the Holy Spirit is to glorify Christ. Whenever the Spirit is at work there will be evidence that Jesus Christ is being glorified. How do you know you are filled with the Spirit? You will see evidence in your life of Christ being reproduced. We see that proof most clearly in the fruit of the Spirit (Gal. 5:22-23). Christ will be exalted in your attitude, behavior, thinking, and manner of life. That is because of the ministry of the Holy Spirit is to exalt Christ in and through us.

Jesus Christ has been exalted to the highest place in heaven. God “highly exalted Him, and gave Him a name above every name” (Phil. 2:9). In the places where you often frequent is Jesus Christ exalted above every other name? Does your presence there bring honor and glory to Him alone? Does what you believe about God and your religion place the same emphasis the New Testament does on Jesus Christ? Do you in any way dilute the glory ascribed to Christ? Do you share His glory with some other religious leader or teacher?

The Holy Spirit always glorifies Christ. If I am Spirit-filled my life and teaching will always seek to glorify the Son of God. Is Jesus Christ being crowned with many crowns in my life? Is He glorified in the way I spend my time, where I go on the Internet, my pursuit of pleasure, the people with whom I associate, the movies I watch, the desires of my heart, the things I long for in my quiet moments, etc.? Are these under the control of the Spirit? Is Christ being made Lord of my life? It is the work of the Holy Spirit to bring every area of our lives under His control, and make it very plain when we are glorifying Jesus Christ. He also convicts us when it is clear we are not Christ-centered. He reproves us when we are tarnishing His glory.

How long does the Holy Spirit have to convict you of anything sinful before you repent? Do you immediately confess it to God and turn from it? Have you gotten into the habit of asking God to forgive, but not turning from the sin? That attitude will paralyze you spiritually. The Holy Spirit will keep coming back to that area of your life and working until you submit it to the lordship of Jesus Christ because that is one of the ways He can get the glory in your life.

Is the image of Jesus Christ clearly seen in your life? Is what you say and do glorifying the Son of God? Give the Spirit freedom in your life to probe deeply and empower you to change what needs to be changed.

How does the Holy Spirit glorify Christ? Jesus said, “He shall take of Mine, and shall disclose it to you” (v. 14). The Holy Spirit exalts the Son of God as He reveals Him in all His fullness to men. The Spirit receives the truth, and fullness of Christ, and imparts it to the believer. God the Father is glorified in the Son and the Son is glorified in the Father. When I am Spirit-filled I am glorifying my Lord and Savior. God is glorified when I glorify the Son. The words and deeds of Jesus were the Father’s on words and deeds. In making the Son known, the Holy Spirit is at the same time making known the Father who is revealed in the Son.

Our greatest occupation as believers is with Jesus Christ and our personal and increasing knowledge of Him. The more we grow in that personal relationship with Him the more we are strengthened and shaped into His likeness. The greatest of all God’s work is the new creation of believers in the likeness of Christ.

How do we know when we are filled with the Spirit? We are under His control when we are glorifying Christ in our everyday life and work.

Selah!

Daily Devotional: How can a Christian be Lost Again?

Message By Wil Pounds

Can a person once saved ever be lost again?

Our question relates only to the person who is saved in the true Biblical sense.

Eternal life is the gift of God. If one has it, he has it for eternity.

The true child of God has received eternal life and is already a citizen of heaven. From the moment he is saved, he is indwelt by the Holy Spirit and by Christ. He has been regenerated and sealed by the Spirit. He is a new creature by the recreative power of God.

At the heart of the question is the eternal purpose of God. In the eternal past the believer was in the thought and purpose of God. The born again believer was “chosen in Him before the foundation of the earth.” God the Father elects the believer. He is chosen in Christ (Eph. 1:4).

The apostle Paul wrote, “For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brethren; and these whom He predestined, He also called; and these whom He called, He also justified; and these whom He justified, He also glorified” (Romans 8:29-30).

God’s goal is that we be “holy and without blame before Him.” We are the trophies of God’s grace for all eternity. Even now, He “raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus ” (Eph. 2:6). That is not something off in the distant future. It is true of the believer in Christ now.

In the eternity to come God will demonstrate “the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us through Christ Jesus” (Eph. 2:7).

Is God fully capable of accomplishing His eternal purpose? Is He baffled and uncertain as to His goals for redeemed humanity?

The apostle Paul said in Philippians 1:6, “For I am confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus.”

God never starts a project that He cannot finish. He began His project with the believer way back in the beginning in eternity past and He will complete it when He presents us complete in Christ at His second coming. Does God’s ability to accomplish His goal in the believer depend upon human abilities or does it depend upon God’s creative and sustaining power? He is able and willing to do for His child that which He purposed long ago in eternity past. God will do “what is the exceeding greatness of His power toward us who believe” (Eph. 1:19a). He will accomplish it “in accordance with the working of the strength of His might which He brought about in Christ, when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places” (Eph. 1:19b-20). That does not sound like it depends on frail human beings to accomplish. Our eternal destiny and security depends on God’s saving grace and power.

On our part we can claim the promise of God in 2 Timothy 1:12, “For this reason I also suffer these things, but I am not ashamed; for I know whom I have believed and I am convinced that He is able to guard what I have entrusted to Him until that day.” This promise is true because of what Jesus said in John 10:27-29. “My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me; and I give eternal life to them, and they will never perish; and no one will snatch them out of My hand. My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand.”

The omnipotent Father secures the flock of Jesus by His mighty power and protection. No power created in heaven or earth is capable of removing the believer out of the hand of God. No one can ever snatch His sheep out of His hand. No one is ever strong enough to snatch any of Jesus’ flock from the Father’s hand. What He has promised He is able to perform.

God has His sheep and He knows who they are. They will hear His voice and respond to His will. God the Father elects and in the time and place of His choosing the Holy Spirit has His messenger who proclaims the saving Word of God and the sinner hears that God loves Him and Jesus died for his sins. The response of the person elected is to receive the gift of eternal life by trusting in Christ as his Savior. When he believes on Christ he becomes God’s child and sheep in His flock. It is then that he learns that He was “chosen in Christ before the foundation of the earth” (Eph. 1:4).

The child of God is secure in Jesus’ hand and the Father’s hand. “They shall never perish” (Jn. 3:16; 6:39; 17:12; 18:9). The Good Shepherd protects His sheep throughout eternity. Jesus is talking about true believers, not professors of Christianity. Jesus did not promise eternal security to anyone other than His true sheep. It is a loving, living, and lasting relationship between the Shepherd and His sheep.

God is infinite in power to keep the believer for eternity. Again Paul testified, “For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Rom. 8:38-39).

Such a promise should cause us to break forth with the great doxology: “Now unto Him that is able to keep you from falling and to present you faultless before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy” (Jude 24).

“They will indeed, not ever perish” (Jn. 10:28). Such security does not depend upon the ability of frail sheep.

Selah!

Daily Devotional: Five Golden Links in Salvation

Message by Wil Pounds

Five Golden Links in Salvation

God is at work in all the many detailed circumstances of our lives to accomplish His eternal purpose.

How much does God love us? Just let me count the many ways. Here are five to begin our quest. “For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brethren; and these whom He predestined, He also called; and these whom He called, He also justified; and these whom He justified, He also glorified” (Romans 8:29-30).

That is what God does for us out of His infinite love and grace. God foreknew. God predestined. God called. God justified. God glorified. God saves!

How does God cause all things to work together for the good of those who love Him and are called according to His purpose? The chain of divine action demonstrates how He accomplishes this “good.” What is this good purpose of God? God is saving a body of people who will be made like Jesus Christ.

He is not making us like gods as the cults purpose. We will not become divine and go off and populate a planet. That nonsense is strange to the Bible.

God’s eternal purpose of redemption is that He will have a people who are loving, full of joy, peace, holiness, wisdom, patience, kindness, goodness, compassion, faithfulness, mercy, grace, etc.

God selects, predestinates, calls, justifies, and glorifies a people who will be like His Son.

The apostle Paul tells us how God does it. He “foreknew” us unto salvation. The Lord never foreordains anyone to be lost in the Scriptures. Those who are saved through faith in Jesus Christ were known ahead of time and chosen unto God (Hos. 13:5; Amos 3:2; Matt. 7:23; Jn. 10:14; Rom. 11:2; 1 Cor. 8:3; Gal. 4:9; 2 Tim. 2:19). It is a divine knowledge. The salvation of every believer is known and determined in the mind of God before its actual accomplishment in time and place.

God foreknows people, and He has a purpose in saving certain people. This is the first link in the chain.

Robert Haldane said, “God foreknows what will be, by determining what shall be.” God knows all things because He is omniscient. God “sets His special love upon” a person or “elects” a person to salvation.

How much does God love us? From this passage of Scripture we can declare so much that He has elected us to salvation and will keep us in that salvation. God set His love and saving grace upon a select group of people to be like His Son Jesus Christ.

The longer I am a Christian the more I realize that my salvation is all of God, and not of man. Even my faith is of God, and the result of His working in us. He creates in us the faith that He demands (Jn. 3:3-8; 6:44, 45, 65; Eph. 2:8; Phil. 1:29; 2 Pet. 1:2). Faith, regeneration, repentance are all intimately related to our salvation experience.

Since God is the author of my salvation it is accomplished with infinite wisdom.

Robert Haldane says in salvation “man acts no part, but is passive, and all is done by God. He is elected and predestined and called and justified and glorified by God. . . . Could anything be more consolatory to those who love God, than to be in this manner assured that the great concern of their salvation is not left in their own keeping? . . . God has taken the whole upon Himself. He has undertaken for them. There is no room, then, for chance or change. He will perfect that which concerns them.”

Paul, therefore, gives us great assurance of God’s eternal purpose in our lives in spite of our present suffering.

God has foreseen everything that will take place in relation to our salvation.

Salvation has its origin in the eternal counsels of God. God elects a chosen people to be conformed to the likeness of His Son. Are you one of those chosen of God?

Selah!

Daily Devotional: Eternal Consequences of Critical Choices

Message By Wil Pounds

Eternal Consequences of Critical Choices

“The wages if sin is death.” Those are startling words.

The only wages sin pays results in death spiritually and eternally.

The wages of sin is death spiritually. That means spiritual eyes that cannot see God, spiritual ears that cannot hear His voice. It means a spiritual heart that is hardened to God and cannot respond to the atoning sacrifice of His Son.

“Dead in trespasses and sins” is the way the apostle Paul describes our problem in Ephesians 2:1.

The greater horror is that this spiritual death leads to eternal death, separated from God in hell, or what the Bible calls the “second death.”

To die the “second death” is to end all possibility of ever receiving God’s gift of eternal life and is the ultimate in sin.

The prophet Ezekiel said, “The soul that sins will surely die” (18:4, 18, 20).

Don’t blame God. You have only yourself to blame. “For I have no pleasure in the death of anyone who dies,” declares the LORD God. “Therefore, repent and live” (v.32).

That is the offer God gives to everyone. “The wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal live in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 6:23).

What a glorious contrast in that sentence: wages… sin… death… free gift of God… eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord!”

Those are the only two options in life. We either choose to sin and receive the full wage of death, or we choose to put our trust in Jesus Christ and live. If the offer is “eternal life,” the opposite is eternal “death,” and age-abiding eternal separation from God in hell.

“There is coming a day when, according to the Gospel, God will judge the secrets of men through Christ Jesus” (Rom. 2:16).

“The kindness of God leads to repentance” (v. 4). But when you refuse to repent and believe on Jesus Christ “because of your stubbornness and unrepentant heart you are storing up wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God, who will render to every man according to his deeds” (vv. 5-6).

Even the loving and kind Jesus Christ made it very clear that every individual will one day stand before God and give an account (Matt. 5:29-30; 10:28; 11:22-24; 12:36-37, 41-42; 13:40-42, 49-50; 16:27; 18:1-10; 23:15, 33, etc.).

At the final judgment God will take into account our responses to Jesus Christ and the opportunities we have had to hear the gospel and believe on Christ. There are degrees of punishment. Jesus made this clear in Matthew 11:20-24. Unbelief is the greatest sin. To refuse to repent and turn to Jesus Christ in faith is far worse than the sins of the notoriously wicked.

What have you chosen to do with Jesus Christ? God does not owe you salvation. Out of His gracious and loving heart He sent His Son Jesus Christ to go to the cross and die for your sins. Yes, “The wages of sin is death,” and Jesus died your death on the cross.

The only thing God owes us is His righteous justice, and we will receive that justice if we refuse to believe on Jesus Christ as our substitute who paid the price of our salvation by dying in our place.

Our only hope of being saved is to believe on Jesus Christ. Yes, “The wages of sin is death,” but God in His great mercy offers you His righteousness in Jesus Christ. “The free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

Selah!

Daily Devotional: The Final Victory Over Sin

Message by Wil Pounds

Romans chapter eight gives a resounding triumphant song that comes forth from the anguishing question, “Wretched man that I am! Who will set me free from the body of this death?” Paul shouts “No condemnation”! “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus” (Romans 8:1).

The opposite of condemnation is justification. There is now not even one bit of condemnation for the person who is “in Christ Jesus.” There is “no condemnation” now, and there never will be condemnation for those who are “in Christ.”

The apostle boldly declares with a powerful statement the believer’s perfect eternal security in Jesus Christ. The chapter begins with “no condemnation,” and ends with “no separation,” and in between is “no defeat.” Nothing, and no one “will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord” (v. 39).

The Christian life is a victorious life, but the apostle Paul does not see it as life without conflict. Even the born again believer has to reckon with the “flesh.”

The apostle Paul is ruthlessly honest with the tension and reality of sin dwelling in the believer so long as he is living this present life.

The victory is in Jesus Christ. He has delivered us from the condemnation of the law because Jesus fulfilled the law. The penalty for sin has been paid in full. He has also given us spiritual birth. We have been born spiritually. We now live the new life in Christ through the power of the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit. “If we are led by the Spirit” we are the “sons of God” (8:14). If we are not living by the Spirit we are not Christians.

The greatest evidence that we are true believers is that we are living under the control of the Holy Spirit.

God’s Word gives us the promise of the assurance of final victory over the power and presence of sin in the Christian’s life. The inevitable triumph will come through God’s grace. Because God has saved us from sin’s penalty, and is saving us from sin’s power, He will give us the final victory over sin’s presence when Christ returns.

What Paul says in Romans seven leads right on into Romans eight. Both chapters are pictures of the mature Christian as he fights the spiritual warfare. No Christian is completely sinless. We are still sinners. The born again believer still has to reckon with the flesh. However, we rest assured of our victory in Christ. We will receive perfect deliverance from sin’s presence when He presents us complete in Him to the Father. It is a future deliverance when He gives us our glorified resurrected bodies (1 Cor. 15:50-58).

God will rescue me through Jesus Christ! Until the day of final deliverance let’s fight the good fight. The outcome of this spiritual warfare is certain. Christ has and will triumph and we, too, will with Him.

Our knowledge of the final outcome of this fight gives us the courage to continue. “But in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us” (Romans 8:37, NASB 1995). “For whatever is born of God overcomes the world; and this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith” (1 John 5:4, NASB 1995).

There is now no condemnation for those who have been joined in a vital union to Jesus Christ by God the Father through the person and work of the Holy Spirit.

Selah!

Daily Devotional: The Final Victory Over Sin

Message by Wil Pounds

The Christian life is a victorious life, but the apostle Paul does not see it as life without conflict. Even the born again believer has to reckon with the “flesh.”

The apostle Paul is ruthlessly honest with the tension and reality of sin dwelling in the believer so long as he is living this present life.

The greatest evidence that we are true believers is that we are living under the control of the Holy Spirit.

There is now no condemnation for those who have been joined in a vital union to Jesus Christ by God the Father through the person and work of the Holy Spirit.

Selah!

Daily Devotional: Pilate before the Kings of Kings

Message by Wil Pounds

Pilate before the King of Kings

The King of kings was on a cross.

Let that statement sink in. The King of kings was hanging on a cross.

The troubling question for the Roman governor Pilate was, “Are You the King of the Jews?” (Matthew 27:11).

A harmony of the Gospels shows that Pilate tried four times to set Jesus free. First, he sent Jesus to Herod when he realized Jesus was from Galilee and under his political jurisdiction (Lk. 22.6-12). Second, Pilate offered to punish Jesus without putting Him to death (Lk. 23:16, 22). Third, he desperately asked the people to choose Barabbas, the insurrectionist and revolutionary in the place of Jesus (Matt. 27:20-26; Mk. 15:6-15; Jn. 18:38-40), and finally, he tried to stir the crowd’s pity by reducing Jesus to a bloody pulp by scourging Him (Jn. 19:1-5).

“Do you want me to release to you the King of the Jews?” (Jn. 18:39-40).

“What shall I do, then, with Jesus who is called the Christ?” asked Pilate.

“Crucify Him! Crucify Him!” they shouted.

The turning point for the coward Pilate came when he realized a riot was starting, and he did not need anymore unfavorable reports sent to Caesar in Rome. The Jewish leaders knew how to manipulate Pilate. “If You let this man go, You are no friend of Caesar” (Jn. 19:12-16). It was political blackmail.

If we are brutally honest with ourselves, we are forced to ask at what point in the pressures and demands of life do we cave in and throw in the towel. At what point are we tempted to “wash our hands” of Him? Family pressures, peer pressures on the job or at school, “politically correct” pressure from the media and authorities, economic and financial pressure make us decide for or against Christ everyday.

To what extent do I love Him? Is He the one consuming passion of my life? Do I by my decisions in daily life crucify Him just as Pilate did?

Pilate wanted to place the responsibility of blame off on others. “I am innocent of this man’s blood. It is your responsibility. I wash my hands of this responsibility” (cf. Matt. 27:24).

Pilate was not innocent; neither are we. “The wages of sin is death.” Pilate could not wash away the stains of Christ’s blood by a ceremonial washing. Neither can we.

Only the blood of Jesus can wash away the sins of Pilate, and Pilate refused Him.

His blood and His blood alone can cleanse us. The death of Jesus takes away all our sins.

What do the Scriptures say?

“But He was pierced through for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; The chastening for our well-being fell upon Him, And by His scourging we are healed. All of us like sheep have gone astray, Each of us has turned to his own way; But the Lord has caused the iniquity of us all To fall on Him” (Isa. 53:5-6). “For Christ also died for sins once for all, the just for the unjust, so that He might bring us to God, having been put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit” (1 Pet. 3:18). “He [God] made Him [Jesus] who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him” (2 Cor. 5:21). “He Himself bore our sins in His body on the cross, so that we might die to sin and live to righteousness; for by His wounds you were healed” (1 Pet. 2:24).

J. C. Ryle makes application of these Scriptures eloquently:

Was He scourged? It was that “through His stripes we might be healed.” Was He condemned, though innocent? It was that we might be acquitted, though guilty. Did He wear a crown of thorns? It was that we might wear the crown of glory. Was He stripped of His raiment? It was that we might be clothed in everlasting righteousness. Was He mocked and reviled? It was that we might be honored and blessed. Was He reckoned a malefactor, and numbered among transgressors? It was that we might be reckoned innocent, and justified from all sin. Was He declared unable to save Himself? It was that He might be able to save others to the uttermost. Did He die at last, and that the most painful and disgraceful of deaths? It was that we might live for evermore, and be exalted to the highest glory (Expository Thoughts on the Gospels: St Matthew, p. 392).

Jesus Christ is the King of the universe today. He is “King of kings, and Lord of lords” (Rev. 19:16). One day the King is coming and He will judge (Matt. 26:64). What He declares about you at that judgment will be determined by what you decide about Him today. You cannot be neutral about Jesus Christ. You cannot place the responsibility off on someone else. The responsibility is yours and the consequences are eternal.

Pilate wanted to be neutral before the king. People want to be neutral today, but Jesus Christ does not give us that freedom of choice. To be “neutral” is to automatically decide to crucify Jesus.

Is Jesus Christ the King of your life? Have you become His subject? You and I have the opportunity and privilege of bowing in submission to Him today, or bow before Him in terror at the judgment day. But we cannot wash our hands of Him.

Selah!

Message By Wil Pounds

Daily Devotional: Conflict — Not Condemnation

It is very unfortunate that there is a chapter division separating Romans 7:25 and 8:1. C. H. Spurgeon observes correctly: “We once heard a friend say, ‘I have gone out of seventh of Romans into the eighth.’ Nonsense! There is no getting out of one into the other, for they are one. I thank God with all my heart that since my conversion I have never known what it is to be out of the seventh of Romans, nor out of the eighth of Romans either. The whole passage has been solid truth to my experience. I have struggled against inward sin, and rejoiced in complete justification at the same time” (Sermons Preached in 1886 by C. H. Spurgeon, vol. xvii, p. 274).

“Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, on the one hand I myself with my mind am serving the law of God, but on the other, with my flesh the law of sin. Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus” (Romans 7:25-8:1, NASB 1995).

There is no break in what the apostle says to the mature believer in this passage. To force a division is artificial.

“The fact is, that believers are in a state of conflict, but not in a state of condemnation, and that at the very time when the conflict is hottest the believer is still justified.” Our sin nature has not been eradicated. We are in a fierce battle which will not go away until we are presented complete in Christ at His coming.

Moreover, “The man who never strives against the sin which dwells in him, who indeed is not conscious of any sin to strive against that is the man who may begin to question whether he knows anything at all about the spiritual life. He who has no inward pain may well suspect that he is abiding in death, abiding therefore under constant condemnation; but that man who feels a daily striving after deliverance from evil, who is panting, and pining, and longing, and agonizing to become holy even as God is holy, he is the justified man. The man to whom every sin is a misery, to whom even the thought of iniquity is intolerable, he is the man who may with confidence declare, ‘There is now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus.’ Souls that sigh for holiness are not condemned to eternal death for their sighing proves that they are in Christ Jesus” (Spurgeon, p. 275).

There is now no condemnation for the believer in Christ who is experiencing the struggle in chapter seven of Romans. Every child of God knows this struggle. No one has arrived at sinless perfection if he is honest with himself. Paul is describing his own walk as a mature Christian. “Every child of God must know this conflict if he knows himself. . . . it is an accurate picture of the inner life of the struggling believer.” It is an accurate description of the soul struggling after purity.

This passage should cause the Christian to rejoice in the great salvation God has provided in His profound free grace. “There is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.”

The indwelling Holy Spirit is the source of divine power for sanctification and the secret for our spiritual victory in living a Christ-centered life. We have been justified, declared righteous, and stand in His free grace. We are no longer under the wrath of God. We have eternal life now.

Yes, it was humiliating for the apostle, just as it should be for us to confess we are weak, and we do faith to be all God wants us to be. “I find then a law, that when I would do good, evil is present with me. . . O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from the body of this death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, on the one hand I myself with my mind am serving the law of God, but on the other, with my flesh the law of sin. There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.”

Thank God!

Selah!

Message By Wil Pounds

Daily Devotional: Faith and the Bible

The Bible is God’s perfectly inspired word. The written Word testifies to God’s self-revelation in His incarnate Son, Jesus Christ. All Scripture, both Old and New Testament, is a clear testimony to Jesus Christ. The Bible is not just a record of revelation of God, but it is revelation itself, and it is an infallible witness of God to men.

“The grass withers, the flower fades, But the word of our God stands forever” (Isa. 40:8). There is nothing like the abiding Word of God.

This is why it is so important for us to examine God’s Word and seek to understand it and its authority in the believer’s life. Our faith is defined by God’s Word, and there cannot be any true saving faith without the Word of God.

The apostle Paul wrote, there is “the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe” (Romans 3:22). Believe in what? Our faith must rest in Jesus Christ and His atoning work. Our faith must reside in Jesus Christ.

Calvin wrote, “There is a permanent relationship between faith and the Word. Take away the Word and no faith will there remain.”

The Word of God also does something. Apart from the word of God we are dead in our trespasses and sins. We are as Whitfield compared us to Lazarus’ body dead in his tomb before Jesus arrived. Martha told Jesus, “Lord, he has been dead four days and he stinks.” What will awaken us from our spiritual death? “Lazarus come forth!” He shouts to us in his Word, “Wil, come forth!” And the Word of God awakened in me the truth of my sinfulness and the saving work of Jesus Christ.

Have you heard Him calling your name? Only the call of the living Word of God can produce such new life. But where can we hear that call? Not in words of men or women or a religious guru. You won’t find it in secular humanism or pop psychology or self-help preachers. The only place we can hear God calling forth the dead is in the pages of the Bible, where alone God speaks.

The apostle Pete wrote, “You have been born anew, not from perishable but from imperishable seed, through the living and enduring word of God” (1 Peter 1:23 NET). Why is this so important? “The Word of the LORD abides forever” (v. 25; Isa. 40:8). The opinions of men, including mine, will perish. Let’s make sure our faith is centered in the person of Jesus Christ as revealed in the Bible. All else will burn up one day.

The apostle Paul affirmed, “All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work” (2 Timothy 3:16-17).

Our conviction is that the Bible, God’s Word, is God-breathed (v. 16). It was written by men divinely inspired and is God’s revelation of Himself to men. It is without error because it is God-breathed. God is its author and the Holy Spirit moving over the minds of those whom He chose to record the permanent revelation of God insured that it is totally true and perfectly trustworthy. That is why the Bible is constantly under assault by secular humanists.

Moreover, the Christian’s faith is strengthened and sustained through the Bible. The Bible is filled with promises, admonitions, corrections, and reproof for the believer (2 Tim. 3:16). In order for us to abide in Christ we must saturate our minds with God’s Word. As we study, meditate, memorize the Word it settles down into our hearts and we learn to think and act biblically. The Holy Spirit uses His Word to conform us to the likeness of Christ. If you are not already doing so, please make a commitment to get into the Bible daily.

Selah!

Message by Wil Pounds

Daily Devotional: Walking in the Spirit

“We are not justified by the manner of our walk, but by our being in Christ Jesus,” observed Spurgeon.

The most important question to ask ourselves is, “Am I in Christ?” If the answer is yes, then “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus” (Romans 8:1).

The individual who is “in Christ Jesus” does not walk after the flesh, but after and in step with the Holy Spirit. He walks according to the guidance of the Spirit. To be “filled with the Spirit” is to be under the control of the Spirit. Every believer has the Holy Spirit. Our responsibility is to be yielded to Him. He has the spirit of life in Christ Jesus. The result of our justification through faith in Christ is a new creation, no longer under the control of the flesh, but in the spirit, a spiritual person.

No, God does not eradicate the flesh. It is still there striving and warring against the spirit, and it will be there until the Christian is taken up into heaven to be with God.

That apostle Paul tells us the person who is “in Christ Jesus” commits himself to the guidance and control of the Holy Spirit. He gives us guidance, encouragement, correction, and leads us in the paths of righteousness so that we become more like Christ.

Another important question for the believer is, Am I walking according to the flesh? Or, Am I walking in the Spirit? Our response determines what we produce in our daily lives.

The apostle Paul said, “Do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit” (Romans 8:4).

How do you know the difference? “For those who are according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who are according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit” (v. 5).

Is my life conduct under the control of the Spirit? If so, I will produce the fruit of the Spirit in my life (Galatians 5:22-23). It will be the opposite of the works of the flesh (vv. 19-21).

How is your walk? Your walk is determined by your thinking. “As a man thinks in his heart, so is he.” Set your mind on the things of the flesh, let it be dominated by fleshly thoughts, and you will produce the works of the flesh. Let your mind be under the control of the Holy Spirit and you will produce the fruit of the Spirit.

Kenneth Wuest translates Romans 8:5, “For those who are habitually dominated by the sinful nature put their minds on the things of the sinful nature, but those who are habitually dominated by the Spirit put their minds on the things of the Spirit.”

Does the Holy Spirit or the flesh habitually dominate your mind? You will know by what your life is producing. Set your mind on the flesh and you will produce flesh. Let it be under the power and control of the Holy Spirit and you become like Jesus Christ in your behavior.

The only way to not walk in the flesh is to change masters of the mind. “Be transformed by the renewing of the mind” (Romans 12:2). Edgar Goodspeed translated Romans 8:5b, “People who are controlled by the spiritual think of what is spiritual.” When we set our minds on the Spirit we produce spiritual things that are pleasing to God. Kenneth Taylor paraphrased this verse, “Those who follow after the Holy Spirit find themselves doing those things that please God.”

The Amplified Bible reads, “For those who are according to the flesh and controlled by its unholy desires, set their minds on and pursue those things which gratify the flesh. But those who are according to the Spirit and [controlled by the desires] of the Spirit, set their minds on and seek those things which gratify the (Holy) Spirit.”

Where do you choose to let your thoughts dwell? You are what you think. Will you not now choose to bow your mind to the control of Spirit of God? Let Him control your thinking. Let the desire of your heart be to depend not upon yourself, but on Christ alone. That is the work of the Holy Spirit within you. We have everything we need to live the Christian life in Him and what He chooses to provide. Our inner resource is God Himself—the Hoy Spirit. Let Him control your mind, your heart, and your actions will pleasing to God.

Selah!

Message by Wil Pounds

Daily Devotional: Finished!

Finished!

The apostle John saw what was happening at the cross when Jesus was crucified. He was an eyewitness to Jesus’ death. A few moments before His death Jesus declared, “It is finished!” (John 19:30). It is one word in the Greek and can be translated, “Done!” “Finished!” or “Completed!” The entire redemptive work of Jesus Christ was finished. The Son gave His report to the Father in a loud voice so all mankind could hear it, and then He went home to the Father having completed the Father’s will.

Jesus did not say, “I am finished.” In essence He said, “It was finished and as a result it is forever done.” “It stands finished.” “Done.” The idea is that of perfection, accomplishment, relief, satisfaction, and victory.

All the accumulated sin, and guilt, of all men, of all time, guilt of all time, including the combined hells of all who have offended God, was paid in full by His death.

The death of Jesus Christ completed the redemptive work. The Lamb of God has made His great sacrifice for the world. It is this that is now done. Our great Substitute paid the great ransom, paid it to the uttermost cent. “It is finished” indeed! There is nothing that can be added to the atoning sacrifice of Jesus Christ.

Our atonement was completed in the moment of Christ’s death for our sins. All of the righteous demands of the law of God against our sins were paid in full and satisfied in His sacrifice for sin. The punishment of our sins and the satisfaction of the righteousness of God meant that God was now free to offer the believing sinner His own perfect righteous standing before God based upon grace alone (2 Cor. 5:21).

At the heart of the death of Jesus Christ is our atonement. The payment was paid in full. God declared, “It is finished!” You and I can never make satisfaction for our sins, no matter how religious we may think we are. You and I can never contribute to our salvation in the least degree. “It is finished!” We cannot add in the least or the greatest thing to His finished work. You cannot atone for your sins committed before or after baptism. You cannot atone for your “temporal” sins. You baptism will not save you. Only God can forgive sins. Only the death of the perfect Lamb of God can cover your trespasses against God. The moment you add one thing to the finished work of Christ you destroy it. To require the sinner to contribute to his own salvation in some measure only contributes to his eternal damnation.

The satisfaction of Christ is the only satisfaction for sin. The perfect sacrifice of Christ is so perfect and final that it leaves no possible liability for any sin of the believer.

“It is finished!” declared Jesus Christ. “Finished!” Done! Complete!

Jesus paid it all, all to Him I owe;
Sin had left a crimson stain;
He washed it white as snow.

The apostle Paul declared, “There is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus” (Romans 8:1).

Have you experienced that deep sense of peace with God? Do you know all your sins are forgiven? No condemnation! We have already been judged for our sins at the cross and Christ died for us. We were condemned. We were declared guilty and Jesus drank every drop of our condemnation and died for us. “For while we were still helpless, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly” (Rom. 5:6). “But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us” (v. 8). The believing sinner has “now been justified by His blood” (v. 9a). “We shall be saved from the wrath of God through Him” (v. 9b).

The reason for this great assurance of salvation is the redemptive shedding of His blood, done once for all, is finished and stands finished forever (Heb. 7:27; 9:12, 16; Rom. 6:10). “It is finished!” shouts Jesus our Savior.

Have you confessed to God that you are a sinner and that you deserve eternal condemnation? Have you believed in the death of Jesus and what He accomplished for you in that death has satisfied the righteous requirements of God to save you for all eternity? It is not what we bring in our hands; it is what Christ has done in His hands that save us.

The only thing left for you to do is believe on Christ. The finished work of Christ is absolutely sufficient to save you and keep you saved.

Selah!

Daily Devotional: A Christian Witness To The Whole World

Message by Wil Pounds

A Christian Witness to the Whole World

I am involved in something that will still be worthwhile a million years from now because God has not revoked the great commission.

Jesus said, “And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in the whole world for a witness to all the nations, and then the end shall come” (Matthew 24:14).

Today the kingdom of God is realized as we proclaim the crucified, risen, and returning Lord Jesus Christ.

The gospel is the good news of the kingdom of God that has come in the person and work of Jesus Christ. How do we enter into the kingdom of God? There is only one way. “Repent of your sins and believe on Jesus Christ.” That is the message we preach.

Our message is the gospel of free grace. It is what God has accomplished for us in the sacrificial substitutionary atoning death of Jesus Christ for our sins. We offer the gospel freely “without money and without cost” (Isa. 55:1).

John Ryle once said, “Men are apt to forget that it does not require great open sins to be sinned in order to ruin a soul forever. They have only to give hearing without believing, listening without repenting, going to church without going to Christ, and by and by they will find themselves in hell.”

It is imperative that we make the message of salvation crystal clear in our presentations. Salvation is the gift of God and it is “by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves.” God has provided everything we need in order to be saved. “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you shall be saved” (Acts 16:31). But also be assured, “Reject Jesus Christ, and you will perish forever.”

Every time we share that message we are personally involved in what God is doing in building His eternal kingdom.

What can we expect as we take the gospel out of self-edification and share it with others? We can prepare for and accept hostility from some listeners (Matthew 10:16-18, 21-25). There will be men who “will deliver you up to the courts, and scourge you in their synagogues, and you shall even be brought before governors and kings for My sake, as a testimony to them and to the Gentiles (v. 17). The history of Christianity is the history of persecution and martyrdom for the cause of Christ. More people have been persecuted and died for Christ during the last hundred years than in the previous two thousand years.

We can expect God’s power and sustaining grace to meet all of our necessities as we take the good news to a lost world. Jesus said, “When they deliver you up, do not become anxious about how or what you will speak; for it shall be given you in that hour what you are to speak” (v. 19). Those are instructions for martyrs and Christians under persecution, not preachers getting ready for Sunday morning without doing their homework. The Holy Spirit gives boldness to testify under all circumstances for Christ. “For it is not you who speak, but it is the Spirit of your Father who speaks in you” (v. 20). Success in personal witnessing is simply sharing Jesus Christ in the power of the Holy Spirit and then leaving the results up to God.

Our job is to be faithful to Christ under all circumstances (vv. 26-27). The only person we are to fear is the LORD God “who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell” (v. 28). The worst thing a man can do to us is to kill the body. But “for me to live is Christ and to die is better yet” (Phil. 1:21).

The Lord is sovereign in His kingdom (vv. 30-33). There is nothing that can happen to His faithful servant who is not fully known to Him. Whatever we experience as His servants is fully known to Him and happens ultimately for our good and His eternal glory. The responsibilities are great for all believers (vv. 34-39).

However, the rewards of being faithful to the Lord Jesus Christ are eternal (vv. 40-42). “He who receives you receives Me, and he who receives Me receives Him who sent Me. . . . And whoever in the name of a disciple gives to one of these little ones even a cup of cold water to drink, truly I say to you he shall not lose his reward” (vv. 40, 42).

Selah!

Message by Wil Pounds

Daily Devotional: Backsliding

Backsliding

Have you ever temporarily lapsed into unbelief and sin after you became a Christian? The condition of backsliding results from spiritual apathy or disregard for the truth of God’s Word. It results in a departure from a winsome confession of faith and Biblical ethical standards. Actions are affected by our attitudes toward God and His Word.

Jesus said, “No one, after putting his hand to the plow and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God” (Luke 9:62).

Backsliding is different from apostasy, which spurns the grace of God by renouncing the atoning work of Jesus Christ on the cross (Heb. 6:4-6; 10:26-31). When a person renounces his faith in Christ that person was never a true child of God, and never was among the elect of God (John 3:18-21, 36; 5:24-29).

On the other hand, the elect individual, regenerated by the Holy Spirit, justified by grace through faith in Jesus Christ, and redeemed by God has been delivered once-for-all from the bondage of sin. Backsliding is not a “fall from grace” in the sense that a Christian once saved by grace can lose his eternal life in Christ. He is God’s child forever, and He has placed His life in the believing sinner.

There were times when the disciples of Jesus withdrew from fellowship with the Lord (Matt. 26:56), Peter denied Christ (26:69-75), Corinthian believers lived in sin (2 Cor. 12:20-21), the Church in Asia became lukewarm (Rev. 2:4, 14-15, 20), etc.

The people of Israel serve as an example for Christians today. We are exhorted to persevere in righteousness and doing the will of God. Israel forsook her covenant with the LORD God (Jer. 2:19; 8:5; 14:7), and demonstrated her unfaithfulness by disobeying God.

In the New Testament backsliding is viewed as an individual problem, although it is possible for churches to become backslidden, too.

Why do Christians become backslidden? We all still possess the old nature that is “corrupt through deceitful lusts” (Eph. 4:22; Rom. 7:13-24; 1 Cor. 3:1-3). Lack of continuous fellowship by “abiding” in Christ results in a lack of spiritual vitality and ineffective Christian service (Jn. 15:4-8). There is no other way to live the Christian life except by maintaining an intimate fellowship with our Lord. If we do not maintain that vital contact with Him we cannot sustain spiritual growth and effectively minister in His name.

Unbelief (Heb. 3:12), bitterness (12:15), love for the world (2 Tim. 4:10), love for money (1 Tim. 6:10), adherence to worldly philosophy (Col. 2:8), legalism (Gal. 3:1; 1:6; 5:7), indifference and spiritual coldness (Rev. 2:4; 3:16) are other causes for backsliding.

Backsliding grieves the Holy Spirit (Eph. 4:30), and it displeases our Lord (Heb. 10:38). There are natural consequences that follow this sin (Lev. 26:18-25).

How can we prevent backsliding in our spiritual life? It is essential that we “abide” in Christ (Jn. 15:4-7), remain spiritually alert (Eph. 6:18), put on the full armor of God (v. 10), be prayerful (1 Thess. 5:17), etc. Seek to love the Lord God with all your mind, heart and personal being every day.

We can thank God that He patiently perseveres with His saints. Just as we are to persevere in doing His will, we can be thankful that He has made a wonderful covenant with us in the blood of His Son, Jesus Christ. The grace of perseverance is one of the great benefits of the atoning death of Jesus Christ for our sins. The solution for backsliding is found in the abiding love and mercy of our God of grace who remains faithful to His promises.

Backsliding is serious business. Martin Luther well said, “The offenses given within the church are greater than those given among the heathen because when Christians degenerate, they are more godless than the heathen.”

We have a choice. We can progress or regress in our Christian life. We have a great responsibility in how we choose to live the Christian life. God is able to strengthen and progressively sanctify the Christian if we cooperate with Him (Heb. 3:12; Phil. 3:10-16).

The promise to every backsliding Christian is to, “Return to Me, and I will return to you, says the Lord of hosts” (Mal. 3:7). Acknowledge your sin, turn from it, trust in the Lord for forgiveness and ask the Holy Spirit to take control of your mind, heart and daily life. Jesus says, “Therefore remember from where you have fallen, and repent and do the deeds you did at first; or else I am coming to you and will remove your lampstand out of its place—unless you repent” (Rev. 2:5).

It is reassuring that the Bible clearly teaches that the truly spiritual regenerate can never be lost. We are his forever children. Once his child by the new birth, always his child. However we can lose our fellowship with God and our effectiveness in Christian service. The God of all grace has provided a bar of soap; let’s use it often (1 John 1:6-10; 2:2).

Selah!

Daily devotional: How Can A Person Please God?

Message by Wil Pounds

How Can a Person Please God?

“Without faith it is impossible to please God” (Hebrews 11:6).

We can state the same truth by answering the question, how can man please God? The author of the Epistle of Hebrews in chapter eleven gives a list of people who did please God.

“By faith Able offered to God a better sacrifice than Cain . . .” (v. 4).

“By faith Enoch was take up so that he should not see death; and he was not found because God took him up; for he obtained the witness that before his being taken up he was pleasing to God” (v. 5).

“By faith Noah, being warned by God about things not yet seen, in reverence prepared an ark for the salvation of his household” (v. 7).

“By faith Abraham, when he was called, obeyed by going out to a place which he was to receive for an inheritance; and he went out, not knowing where he was going” (v. 8).

“By faith he lived as an alien in the land of promise . . . for he was looking for the city which has foundations, whose architect and builder is God” (vv. 9-10).

“By faith even Sarah . . . considered Him faithful who had promised” (v. 11).

“By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac . . . He considered that God is able to raise men even from the dead, from which he also received him back as a type” (vv. 17, 19).

“By faith Isaac . . . . By faith Jacob . . . . By faith Joseph . . . . By faith Moses . . . . considering the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures of Egypt; for he was looking to the reward” (vv. 24, 26).

The list goes on and on of men and women who pleased God, “who by faith conquered kingdoms, performed acts of righteousness, obtained promises, shut the mouths of lions, quenched the power of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, from weakness were made strong, became mighty in war, put foreign armies to flight. Women received back their dead by resurrection; and others were tortured, not accepting their release, in order that they might obtain a better resurrection, and others experienced mockings and scourgings, yes, also chains and imprisonment” (vv. 33-36).

And there was a price they paid for their faithfulness. “They were stoned, they were sawn into, they were tempted, they were put to death with the sword . . .” (v. 37).

The writer of Hebrews tells us what was common of them was they, “All died in faith, without receiving the promises . . .” (v. 13). “And all these having gained approval through their faith, did not receive what was promised, because God had provided something better for us, so that apart from us they should not be made perfect” (vv. 39-40).

The last two verses are absolutely amazing. They all obtained a testimony “through their faith,” yet they “did not receive what was promised (lit. the promise).” The reason they did not receive it was “because God had provided something better for us, so that apart from us they should not be made perfect.”

What was “promised”? Jesus Christ the Messiah! That is what the whole book of Hebrews has been about. They all looked forward by faith to the coming of Jesus Christ. We look back upon Him by faith. Those who walked by faith and pleased God received the fulfillment of their promises “in the fullness of time” when God provided His Son (Galatians 4:4-6).

Faith that pleased God is connected to Christ. It is a vital union with Christ. Do you have faith in Him? Have you come to Him saying, “Nothing in my hand I bring, simply to the cross I cling”?

How can a person please God? There is only one way. Faith alone in Jesus Christ saves. “None but Jesus can do helpless sinners good.”

The very essence of true faith is leaning upon Jesus Christ. It is a personal trust in His saving death that saves. Just knowing that Christ died for sinners will not save you. It is not enough just to know Jesus Christ is a Savior. I shall be saved by believing that Jesus Christ died for my sins. Jesus is my refuge, my trust; He is my Savior. I cast myself on the promise of the word of God that all who call upon Him for salvation will be saved. It will save you to trust, believe, rely upon Jesus Christ to be your Savior. The way to please God is simply to believe in Jesus Christ. Have you faith in Him? Do you believe on Jesus Christ with all your heart? Do you have saving faith?

Selah!

Message by Wil Pounds

Daily Devotional: Fellowship of the Holy Spirit

“The fellowship of the Holy Spirit” is a blessing for all believers in Christ (2 Cor. 13:14; Phil. 2:1).

We do not need any new baptism of the Holy Spirit to enjoy this blessing. All things are ours in the Christian life when we believed on Christ and received Him. The apostle Paul tells us we are heirs and joint-heirs with Christ. Every believer has received the indwelling of the Holy Spirit from the moment he believed on Christ. The baptism of the Spirit placed us in the body of Christ. We can now enjoy the communion of the Holy Spirit.

The only thing that can now mar this fellowship with the Holy Spirit is unconfessed sin. We abide in communion with the Spirit of God as we abide in the finished work of Christ on the cross. “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9, NASB 1995).

We live in the fellowship of the Holy Spirit, which is the fellowship or communion of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

The fellowship of the Holy Spirit is so important that to blaspheme Him is to suffer eternal judgment. Every other sin can be forgiven with the exception of speaking evil of Him (Matt. 12:31-32). To blaspheme the LORD God was punishable by death in the Old Testament (Lev. 24:15, 16). In the New Testament to blaspheme the Spirit results in eternal judgment. To blaspheme against the Holy Spirit is to blaspheme against the very essence of the Spirit of God. It is a sin against the constant striving of the Holy Spirit for us to repent and believe on Jesus Christ. It is a defiant attitude until the very end of this life.

The fellowship with the Spirit is so important because we are united to Christ in the bonds of the Holy Spirit. We communicate with Him and He with us. He is our teacher and guide. He leads us. He is our advocate within who interprets the desires of our heart and the will of God. He gives us the power to do the will of God. He convicts us of sin and exhorts us to go to the cleansing fountain.

Our fellowship with the Spirit is of utmost importance because He seeks partnership with us in life and ministry. His resources are unlimited, inexhaustible, and His power is invincible. He longs for our intimate fellowship with us. He longs to be admitted to the inner life of the soul.

However, there are attitudes, reservations, interests, unbelief, prayerlessness, selfish-ambitions, arrogant pride, anger, bitterness, etc. that grieves and quenches His work.

When we are in agreement with Him the personality of the believer is quickened and sanctified. Our desire is to be in constant fellowship with Him.

When we cooperate with Him He comes to give us a daily life that overflows with the fruit of the Spirit. When we are in agreement with Him there is His power operating in and through us. Ministry becomes a daily adventure with Him at the helm. Our empathy for the needy are deepened and enlightened. Our compassion for the lost soul is strengthened and we pray with passion that they will be saved. Ordinary Christians become empowered when clothed with the Spirit of God.

The fellowship, joint-participation, partnership and communion, with the Holy Spirit is communion with the LORD God. It should affect everything we do in our Christian life and ministry.

True spiritual unity comes from within; it is a matter of the heart, and is based on this relationship. That is why Paul in Philippians 2:1 appeals to believers on the strength of this unique relationship with the Spirit. We could translate “if” with “in view of the fact that,” or “since” you enjoy this “fellowship with the Spirit” as a result of the Spirit’s permanent indwelling ministry (1 Cor. 6:19). This may refer, however, to fellowship that comes from the Holy Spirit, just as encouragement comes from Christ and comfort comes from love.

Let us not neglect the sweet fellowship of the Holy Spirit in life and ministry.

Selah!

Message by Wil Pounds

Daily Devotional: Follow the Leader

“Follow Me!”

Those two words together form a command found thirteen times in the Gospels. Jesus used those two simple words when He called Peter, Andrew, James and John to be His disciples (Matthew 4:19). “And immediately they left their nets, and followed Him” (v. 20). Jesus called the tax collector Matthew in a similar manner. Jesus said to him, “Follow Me!” “And he arose, and followed Him” (9:9).

The words mean immediate detachment from personal interests and attachment to Christ. Implied in the call of Jesus was a turning from sin to Him in order to be saved.

Even after Jesus had risen from the dead, while the disciples were on a fishing trip, Jesus told Peter, “Follow Me!” (John 21:19). There are many references to individuals following Jesus.

But these words were not just for the twelve disciples; they are also for us today. Discipleship means following Jesus in a personal way.

“Follow Me!” is a call to obedience. It is no mere invitation, but an imperative command. Those who heard the words of Jesus immediately left everything to follow Him. It was a costly decision for James and John because “they immediately left the boat and their father, and followed Him” (Matt. 4:22). Matthew left his lucrative tax business.

There is no genuine Christianity without obedience to Christ. The rich young ruler heard the call and realized that Jesus was his rightful Lord and Master, but he refused to follow Him. The true believer enters into a life of obedience to Christ.

On another occasion Jesus said, “My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me” (John 10:27). They are in the habit of listening to His voice and following Him. Earlier in the chapter Jesus used the illustration of the Palestinian shepherd who calls his sheep and they hear his voice, and they go out following him because they know his voice (vv. 3-4). However, they will not follow a stranger because they do not know the voice of the strangers (v. 5). Jesus gives “eternal life to them” that follow Him, “and they shall never perish (double negative—not perish, never); and no one shall snatch them out of My hand” (v. 28). If you have a tendency to doubt such great spiritual truth Jesus went on to say in the next verse, “My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand” (v. 29).

Who are you following? Are you following Jesus or some other religious teacher? Are you following Jesus in obedience to His teaching?

Jesus calls sinners to follow Him. He does not come to call the self-righteous, but sinners to follow (Matt. 9:13). He treated all men as spiritual in essence, sinning in experience with the possibility of being saved by grace. He knew human nature, and He knows us individually. The physician is never with the healthy, but with the pathological. His call is a call to repentance. He comes and He finds people living in sin and He bids them come and follow Him. A sinner cannot follow Jesus without a radical change in the direction of his life. To repent means a change of mind that affects a change in one’s life. It is impossible to follow Christ without repentance. We must turn our back on sin and set our face toward the righteousness of God in Christ. No one can follow Christ without repenting.

Charles Spurgeon said, “They come straightway; they come at all cost; they come without a question; they come to quit old haunts; they come to follow their leader without stipulation or reserve.”

That is the only way we can respond to His call for us to “Come and follow!” It is an act of simple trust in Christ. It is impossible to follow Him without trusting Him. If we do not follow we are not committed to Him. We are following our own goals or someone else’s. The call to “Follow Me!” means we will submit to His lordship.

In deed, “When Jesus bids a man come and follow, He bids him come and die.” You cannot follow Jesus without dying to self. “If anyone wishes to come after Me, let him deny self, and take up his cross, and follow Me. For whoever wishes to save his life shall lose it; but whoever loses his life for My sake shall find it” (Matt. 16:24-25).

Come, “Follow Me!” Will you follow Jesus in a life of obedient faith?

Selah!

Message by Wil Pounds

Daily Devotional: Faith’s Object: Jesus Christ

What is the object of my faith? What am I to believe in to receive the gift of eternal life and live with God in heaven? What must I do to be saved?

The object of faith for the sinner is Jesus Christ. We receive “the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all those who believe” (Romans 3:22). We are “being justified as a gift by His grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus” (v. 24).

Jesus Christ alone is the object of your faith for the forgiveness of sin. On nothing else can you trust to have all your sins pardoned.

God is a just God, and He must punish sin. God at the same time is merciful and wills to pardon and forgive those who believe on Jesus Christ. How can He be just and exact the penalty for sin? How can He be merciful and accept the sinner? How can He be just and at the same time justify the believing sinner?

The Biblical solution to our sins problem is substitution, which is essential to God’s plan of salvation. God looks upon Jesus Christ as though He had been all the sinners in the world wrapped up into one. The sins of His people were taken from their persons and actually laid on Jesus Christ when He died on the cross. God in fiery judgment met the sinner and punished Him. “The wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23a). God poured out His wrath against sin on His own Son. Christ was not the actual sinner, but the sins of all His people were all imputed to Him. They were charged to His account personally and spiritually. The justice of God met Jesus Christ on the cross as though He had been the actual sinner. Jesus received the punishment for His people’s sins. God extracted from His Son the last atom of the penalty for our sins. He drank the last drop of judgment against us.

Today we look upon Jesus Christ as our substitute who died in our place. We put our trust in His saving work for us. We are delivered from the curse of the law because Jesus died for us. Jesus Christ has paid the wages of sin in full.

Jesus was the “just” dying for the “unjust.” He was the “righteous” one dying for the “unrighteous.” Jesus Christ is the vicarious substitutionary sacrifice dying for the sins of all those who will trust Him for the remission of their sins. Jesus endured once and for all the punishment for our sins. He has put away our sins forever by the sacrifice of Himself on the cross.

Therefore, the object of our faith must ever be in Jesus Christ. Saving faith can never be in ourselves because we are sinners, already condemned and under the judgment of God. A person dead in trespasses and sins cannot offer God anything to merit salvation.

“For while we were still helpless, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly” (Romans 5:6). “God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us” (v. 8). Therefore, God now offers us His free gift of salvation. “For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord” (6:23).

The blood of Jesus Christ cleanses the person who puts his faith in Jesus. The waters of baptism cannot wash your sins away. Only the blood of Jesus can do that. If the blood of the Son of God, Jesus Christ, cannot cleanse us of every sin surely water cannot. Trust in the blood and the righteousness of Jesus Christ to save your soul. Nothing else will do.

The object of the sinner’s faith must be Jesus Christ who is the substitute for sinners. The sinner has no other plea but the blood of Jesus that was shed for him. Jesus came into the world to save sinners, and because we are sinners, we qualify. We come confessing ourselves to be sinners and trusting Jesus Christ alone and His atoning death alone to save us. We come with nothing in our hands but the cross of Jesus and His redeeming blood. Jesus and Jesus alone can save your soul. “Wash me, Savior, or I die.”

Believe on Jesus Christ and His blood will make you clean. It is not faith in Jesus Christ plus baptism. It is not faith in Jesus Christ plus church membership. It is not faith in Jesus Christ plus your good works. It is not faith in Jesus Christ plus anything you do. It is faith in Jesus and His saving grace alone that will save your soul. Put your trust in Jesus and you shall be saved.

Selah!

Message by Wil Pounds

Daily Devotional: Evidence that Demands our Faith

Evidence that Demands Our Faith

How do I know that God has fully accepted the death of Jesus Christ as payment for my sins?

“When Jesus died, He died as my representative, and I died in Him; when He rose, He rose as my representative, and I rose in Him. . . . I look at the cross of Christ, and I know that atonement has been made for my sins; I look at the open sepulcher and the risen and ascended Lord, and I know that the atonement has been accepted. There no longer remains a single sin on me, no matter how many or how great my sins may have been. My sins may have been as high as the mountains, but in the light of the resurrection the atonement that covers them is as high as heaven. My sins may have been as deep as the ocean, but in the light of the resurrection the atonement that swallows them up is as deep as eternity” (R. A. Torrey, The Bible and Its Cross, pp. 107-08).

The resurrection of Jesus Christ is the proof that the LORD God has accepted the full payment for our sins in the death of His Son. God is fully and completely satisfied with the atoning work Jesus did on the cross for my sins because He raised Him from the dead.

The resurrection of Jesus Christ proves that every believer in Christ is justified by faith, and cleansed by His blood of all their sins (Heb. 12:1-2; Phil. 2:8-11). It is the evidence from God Himself that the penalty for our sins has been paid in full by the death of Jesus Christ. By the resurrection of Jesus from the dead God declared that He has accepted the death of Jesus as an atonement for our sins.

Do you “believe in Him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead”? (Romans 4:24). Jesus “was delivered up because of our transgressions, and was raised because of our justification” (v. 25). God the Father sent Jesus to the cross to die for our sins (Acts 2:23), and “God raised Him up again” (v. 24). “This Jesus God raised up again, to which we are all witnesses,” declared Peter (v. 32). The death of Jesus Christ was according to God’s determined plan to accomplish our redemption. Jesus Christ is “the Lamb of God slain from the creation of the world” (Rev. 13:8).

Moreover, Jesus deliberately chose to die as our substitute. He “died for our sins.” He died in our place on the cross as our sins-bearer.

The fact that we are sinners is proof that we deserve to die. “The wages of sin is death.” We deserve eternal damnation, but Jesus was delivered up by His Father for our transgressions. He was crucified for our sins. I deserve Hell, but Jesus took my Hell and served the sentence of death in my place (Rom. 5:6, 8). We have redemption through His death (1 Pet. 1:18-19).

How do we know this as a fact? Why should we put our trust in His death? How can we know for sure that the death of Jesus Christ is all-sufficient to cover all our sins? “He was delivered up because of our transgressions, and was raised because of our justification.” That is all the proof I need. The resurrection is God’s proof that He accepted the death of Jesus in my place. Because Jesus is alive I know beyond a doubt that a full payment for my sins has been made.

Such evidence as this demands that we respond to God by faith in Jesus Christ (Rom. 10:9-10, 13). It was by His substitutionary, vicarious death that Jesus turned the wrath of God aside and became the basis upon which God is able to justify the sinner who believes.

“Therefore having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom also we have obtained our introduction by faith into this grace in which we stand; and we exult in hope of the glory of God” (Romans 5:1-2).

Selah!

Message by Wil Pounds

Daily Devotional: Christian Perfection (II)

It is true that we will never be perfect in this life, but the perfections outlined by Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount are still those for which we should aim and that we should increasingly attain by God’s grace and the power of the Holy Spirit in our lives.

We are to aim at Christ-like character. Jesus said, “Therefore you are to be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect” (Matthew 5:48).

How good must a person be to stay saved?

I am a sinner. Nothing I will do will ever be perfect. What can I do to be saved and to keep saved? Since self-efforts will not save us, we must receive the perfect righteousness that God has provided in the atoning substitutionary death of Jesus Christ (2 Cor. 5:21).

Only the LORD God is perfect, and He works to perfect sinful man.

How does God work to perfect sinners? There are three Biblical facts we must keep clearly in mind.

1. We are sinners, and there is no denying that fact. Sin is an offense against God, and He cannot ignore it. Sin has to be dealt with completely according to His just standards. This is why God the Father sent God the Son to die for our sins. Jesus bore the penalty for our sins in full, and canceled all claims of God’s justice against the believing sinner forever. God punished our sins on the cross of Jesus. “By one sacrifice Christ has made perfect forever those who are being made holy” (Heb. 10:14). Have you believed on Jesus Christ as your Savior?

How perfect must a Christian be? The Christian believer must guide his life by the perfect, ethical standard of Jesus Christ. Jesus said, “You are to be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect” (Matt. 5:48).

2. The second principle we must keep in mind is that from the moment we believe on Jesus Christ as our Savior, God begins a work in us to perfect us in this life. At the new birth, we are given a perfect standing before God in one sense, but it is also true that we are far from perfect in our daily life.

The apostle Paul distinguishes between two ways the word “perfect” is used in the New Testament. In Philippians 3:12 he writes, “Not that I have already obtained it or have already become perfect, but I press on so that I may lay hold of that for which also I was laid hold of by Christ Jesus” (Philippians 3:12). Paul has in mind here absolute perfection – God’s perfect standard, absolute spiritual maturity, fully-grown just like Jesus Christ. It is the same idea that Jesus Christ spoke of in Matt. 5:48, “Therefore you are to be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect” (Matthew 5:48).

In the next sentence Paul tells us that even though he has already been declared acquitted before God on the basis of his faith in the atoning sacrificial death of Jesus Christ, he is still in the need of practical daily work of being perfected in Jesus Christ. “Brethren, I do not regard myself as having laid hold of it yet; but one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. Let us therefore, as many as are perfect, have this attitude; and if in anything you have a different attitude, God will reveal that also to you; however, let us keep living by that same standard to which we have attained” (Philippians 3:13-16).

“Perfect” in verse fifteen is a relative, spiritual maturity, indicating the stages of growth, hence, perfect in growth at certain stages. Even as an elderly Christian, Paul had not arrived to sinless perfection, but he did not give up, and make excuses for sins. All of his guilt is covered by the payment of Christ on the cross. The penalty has been removed, but God is still at work in his daily practice of holiness. Paul is not getting better and better so that one day he can say he is without sin in his daily life. God has provided for us in His saving grace a provision for cleansing of sin and restoration of fellowship in the Christian’s life (I John 1:8).

3. Our ultimate sanctification or what the Bible calls glorification will take place when we are presented perfect just like Jesus Christ, and it will take place in the moment of our death. God’s work of perfecting the saints will take place when we see Jesus in glory and not before then. At that moment we will be presented to God the Father sinless and complete (1 John 3:1-3). We never know that perfection in this life. We will in the likeness of Christ be pure and holy in love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control, wisdom, humility, obedience, etc.

What God began in your new birth, He will continue to work on throughout this life until He has perfected us and presents us perfect to the Father. What God begins, He always finishes (Phil. 1:6; Rom. 8:24-29). God will not give up on any born again believer. He will keep on perfecting us until the day when Christ comes for us.

Selah!

Message by Wil Pounds

Daily Devotional: Christian Perfection (1)

Christian Perfection (I)

How good does a person have to be in order to be saved? Perhaps we can best answer that question by asking, how perfect is God?

Jesus said, “You are to be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect” (Matthew 5:48).

The LORD God told the children of Israel, “You shall be holy: for I the LORD your God am holy” (Leviticus 19:2; cf. Deut. 18:13).

The Hebrew word tam or tamim means to be “without defect” or “without blemish.” The Hebrew sacrifices had to be “without blemish,” spotless and entirely without defect (Exodus 12:5; 29:1; 1 Pet. 1:19; Eph. 5:27). Another word shalem means “whole” or “complete.” That which is without defect or blemish is complete.

God’s righteous standard never changes because He does not change. God is the perfect standard or He would not be God.

Jesus used the word “perfect” (teleioi from telos) meaning end, goal, limit. It is the absolute standard of our heavenly Father. Such a person is perfect or fully developed “in a moral sense.” Therefore, in the moral realm it means “blameless.”

Jesus is the perfect example of that divine standard (1 Peter 2:21-25).

The word “holy” in Leviticus 19:2 gives us the reason for the sacrifices under the Mosaic law. God is holy and man is a sinner. Sin separates man from God. The source of our sanctification is “the LORD who sanctifies you” (20:8). The meaning is to set apart or separate.

God’s standard for man is complete, perfect, moral rectitude. To be acceptable to God every human being must be as blameless and sinless as Jesus Christ.

That standard of righteousness creates a moral and spiritual crisis for all mankind. The Bible tells us we have all sinned and fall short of such moral perfection. “There is no distinction; for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23). God’s standard is a clean heart and it is evident from studying the Sermon on the Mount that no one can live up to its demands (cf. Matt. 5:20-25, 27). The center of our personality condemns us. Jesus said, “Out of the heart proceeds evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornicators, thefts, false witnesses, slanders,” etc. (15:18-20). It is the heart that has to be changed (2 Cor. 5:17).

I have a problem. I am a sinner. But my problem is even greater than I ever imagined. “The wages of sin is death” (Rom. 6:23). Our sinning can be illustrated by an archer shooting his arrows from Tegucigalpa, Honduras, Central America, at the North Pole. He will miss it every time. It will always fall short. No one will ever get to heaven by his or her own efforts because we miss God’s perfect standard.

God never lowers His standards to accommodate sinful man. His absolute holiness is the standard. He will not accept half-way or half-hearted obedience. God is infinite in His perfections. Jesus is saying in Matthew 5:48, “Therefore you are to be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.” We are to be “brought to completion, full-grown, lacking in nothing.”

How can that be since what has been written describes me? Great! Because that is why Jesus Christ went to the cross and died as a sacrifice for sin. “The wages of sin is death,” and Jesus died your death on the cross. Based on the atoning sacrificial death of Jesus Christ as our substitute, God can now save us by grace through faith in Jesus Christ. God credits to our account the perfect righteousness of Jesus Christ. God dealt in full with our penalty by sending Christ to the cross to die for us. When we believed on Christ, God the Father and Judge declared us acquitted based on the saving work of Christ.

Every Christian struggles with holiness in his life, and all of us will until we see Jesus Christ face to face (Phil. 3:12-16).

God makes us holy by changing us from the inside out (2 Cor. 3:18). It is a progressive sanctification, not a once-for all sinless perfection before we die.

The ultimate goal of the believer is to live in harmony with Matthew 5:48, and “to be perfect as our heavenly Father is perfect.”

We will be established “unblamable in holiness before God, even our Father, at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ with all His saints” (I Thess. 3:13).

It is to those who strive to attain the goal that the victory is assured. We will reach the ideal goal of perfection when we see Jesus in glory. It will be the perfect gift to the believer (Psa. 17:15); Phil. 1:6; 3:12; II Tim. 4:7, 8; Rev. 21:27; 7:14).

Selah!

Message by Wil Pounds

Daily Devotional: The Unchanging Christ: The Same Forever

“When our Savior comes again,” wrote H. A. Ironside, “God is coming to take control of things in this world and the Holy Spirit will be poured out upon all flesh. Father, Son and the Holy Spirit in council in the past eternity; Father, Son and Holy Spirit working out our salvation here on earth; Father, Son and Holy Spirit bringing in the glory by and by when the long period of man’s trial is over, when the kingdom is fully established, and the Lord Jesus Christ abides forever the One in whom the Father and Spirit as well as the Son are fully displayed—for He is the image of the invisible God.”

The writer of Hebrews simply said, “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever” (Heb. 13:8).

In His awesome prayer the night before His death by crucifixion, Jesus prayed, “Now, Father, glorify Me together with Yourself, with the glory which I had with You before the world was” (Jn. 17:5).

“Jesus Christ is the same . . . forever.”

He came from glory and He returned to glory. Here is one of the most profound, relevant truths in God’s Word. Jesus Christ came from glory and took upon our flesh, and humbled Himself to die as our substitute to pay our death penalty. Now He has gone back to the glory He had with the Father in eternity, but He remains a man in that glory.

“This same Jesus.” Oh, praise God. “This Jesus, who has been taken up from you into heaven, will come in just the same way as you have watched Him go into heaven” (Acts 1:11).

He will come back the way He went—this same Jesus. This same Jesus who was wounded for our transgressions, bruised for our iniquities, and with whose stripes we are healed, who cried, “It is finished,” rose form the dead and ascended into heaven—this same Jesus will be unchanged when He returns to this earth in triumphant glory.

He is our unchanged and unchangeable Savior. When He comes again He will not be wearing servants robes, but the robes of the eternal King of glory. He will be dressed in the robes of the King of kings and Lord of lords.

“Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and for eternity.” He came the first time to bear our sin and iniquity and die as our substitute. Today He lives ever to make intercession for us as our Mediator. When He comes every knee will bow and confess Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father.

“This same Jesus” is the “same yesterday, today and forever.” Jesus is eternally the same.

We have received the complete and final revelation of God to man in the person of Jesus Christ which can never be superceded or supplemented by something better.

Jesus said, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me” (Jn 14:6). The apostle Peter preached, “And there is salvation in no one else; for there is no other name under heaven that has been given among men by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:12).

In the context of Hebrews chapter 13, the faithful leaders in the church had gone to be with the Lord, but the writer reminds the church members that Jesus remains the same.

Jehovah in the Old Testament is the Jesus of Nazareth in the New. The unchangeable One is the Messiah.

For the first readers of the epistle of Hebrews the Temple had been destroyed, the ceremonial law was gone, and the Levitical priesthood was no more. However, Jesus Christ, the Mediator of the New covenant between God and man abides unchanged forever.

Selah!

Message by Wil Pounds

Daily Devotional: The Unchanging Christ: The Same Today

“Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever” (Heb. 13:8).

The pre-incarnate Christ changes not.

It is said that Plato, the Greek philosopher proposed to his students one day, “It may be that some day there will come forth from God a Word, a Logos, who will reveal all mysteries and make everything plain.”

The Lord God answered Plato when He came in the person of His Son, Jesus Christ. The Logos was made flesh and dwelt among men, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth (Jn. 1:1, 14, 18).

The Lord God has answered the cry in the heart of mankind for God to reveal all mysteries and make plain who He is. No, He has not answered all of our questions about an eternal, all-knowing, sovereign creator. However, He has revealed enough about Himself to answer our deepest needs.

“Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, and today . . .”

The simple fact of history never changes; Jesus Christ is alive. He is the same person who pre-existed before He became flesh and He is the same one who walked the dusty roads of Galilee, changed the water to wine in Canaan, and raised the dead in Lazarus’ tomb.

There were three witnesses to the resurrection of Jesus. We are told that the Father raised Jesus from the dead. Now since He raised Him from the dead He had to be an eyewitness.

The Holy Spirit was there. We are also told in the Scriptures the Holy Spirit quickened Him from the dead.

Jesus was there. It was His experience! “Destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up.” On another occasion Jesus said, “For this reason the Father loves Me, because I lay down My life so that I may take it again. No one has taken it away from Me, but I lay it down on My own initiative. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again. This commandment I received from My Father” (John 10:17-18). Other passages of Scripture reinforce this idea. “He is not here, for he has risen, just as he said. Come, see the place where he was lying” (Matt. 28:6).

There is perfect unity in the holy Trinity in the death, resurrection and ascension of Jesus Christ. The Godhead always works in perfect harmony. The Father raised Him from the dead, the Spirit raised Him from the dead, and the Son raised Himself from the dead.

A perfect, unchanging, loving God became flesh and in the person of His Son died on the cross to redeem us. After His resurrection He went back to be with the Father in intimate perfect fellowship.

The same Jesus, the same one who lived, and died, and rose again is the same today in His majestic love and grace for sinners.

The three-in-one still says, “If any man hear my voice, and open the door, we will come in to him, and will sup with him.”

“Jesus Christ the same yesterday, today and forever.”

The moment you receive the Holy Spirit you receive the Father and the Son.

“I am the vine, you are the branches.’ “Abide in me and I in you.”

What an eternal blessing to be enjoyed today!

Intimate, holy communion with our eternal Savior. “Make it relevant,” preacher. Can there ever be anything more relevant than this great truth? “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever,” and He invites us to dine with Him for all eternity. He invites and makes possible for you and me to feast upon Him!

Our Christian doctrine does not change from day to day, or as religious leaders pass on because Jesus Christ is the same. The Truth is fixed in Him. His Gospel is everlasting.

Selah!

Message by Wil Pounds

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Daily Devotional: Who Will Bring Charge Against God’s Chosen?

Daily Devotional: How Do You Know When You Are Spirit-filled?

Daily Devotional: How can a Christian be Lost Again?

Daily Devotional: Five Golden Links in Salvation

Daily Devotional: Eternal Consequences of Critical Choices

Daily Devotional: The Final Victory Over Sin

Daily Devotional: The Final Victory Over Sin

Daily Devotional: Pilate before the Kings of Kings

Daily Devotional: Conflict — Not Condemnation

Daily Devotional: Faith and the Bible

Daily Devotional: Walking in the Spirit

Daily Devotional: Finished!

Daily Devotional: A Christian Witness To The Whole World

Daily Devotional: Backsliding

Daily devotional: How Can A Person Please God?

Daily Devotional: Fellowship of the Holy Spirit

Daily Devotional: Follow the Leader

Daily Devotional: Faith’s Object: Jesus Christ

Daily Devotional: Evidence that Demands our Faith

Daily Devotional: Christian Perfection (II)

Daily Devotional: Christian Perfection (1)

Daily Devotional: The Unchanging Christ: The Same Forever

Daily Devotional: The Unchanging Christ: The Same Today

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